Bath boss Stuart Hooper plays down Anthony Watson injury scare
Bath boss Stuart Hooper has moved to play down an injury scare surrounding England star Anthony Watson.
Watson, one of England’s top performers at the World Cup in Japan, limped out of Bath’s 25-19 Champions Cup defeat against Harlequins.
He went off nursing a leg problem 11 minutes into the second-half.
And the Bath fullback underlined his frustration in front of watching England head coach Eddie Jones by hurling his gum-shield to the ground before leaving the action.
Continue reading below...
“He feels all right,” Bath rugby director Hooper said.
“We were just making sure we looked after him. I think he’s all right, yes.
“It’s not his knee. He just pulled up a bit tight, so we just brought him off.”
England look like being without injured Exeter centre Henry Slade for the early Six Nations action, with the World Cup runners-up facing France in a Paris opener on February 2.
Bath, meanwhile, are staring at a first top-flight European whitewash after Quins won the Pool Three encounter thanks to tries from flanker James Chisholm, wing Gabriel Ibitoye and number eight Alex Dombrandt, while Brett Herron kicked two conversions and two penalties.
Bath managed three touchdowns of their own – hooker Jack Walker, wing Gabe Hamer-Webb and centre Jackson Willison the scorers – and Freddie Burns added two conversions.
The west country club have never lost all their pool games in a European campaign, but a 16th season of European Cup rugby will officially be their worst if they are toppled by Ulster next Saturday and suffer a sixth successive defeat.
Bath encountered a number of problems in the lineout, and Hooper added: “We are already looking at the detail of what went wrong there.
“It is something we pride ourselves on, so it’s disappointing, but we will fix it for sure. It was a missed opportunity to win a game.”
Quins’ victory means Bath are consigned to finish bottom of the group, and it was an impressive triumph following last week’s 48-10 Gallagher Premiership drubbing against Sale Sharks.
"6120915057001"]
Latest Comments
I’m not fully convinced this was any sort of deliberate grand plan by SB, other than perhaps a masterful way (as it transpired) of dealing with injuries to a couple of key players in positions that lack high calibre alternatives in SB’s view. Losing Martin and Lawrence was disruptive to the team England ideally wanted and pretty likely both start if they had been able to. Ted Hill clearly isn’t fully trusted, despite being on the bench vs Scotland and Italy, and Slade may have had his day in light of an winger being drafted in to start as Test centre for the first time. Moving Earl to centre is worthwhile, in the right circumstances, as a proving exercise for future reference but it’s not the way to go against any of the top teams.
So they may well have added another page to their emergency playbook but I’m doubtful it was a genuine attempt at cutting edge innovation. More a case of necessity being the mother of invention that happened to suit the opposition on that given day. I guess we’ll know more in the Autumn but it won’t be until next year in Paris that the first real test of that set up would come against a heavy power team, IF it’s still in use ofc…
Go to commentsIt all started when I was contacted by a woman named Clara, who introduced herself as a professional cryptocurrency broker based in Miami. She recommended a platform called Coinbit Net, claiming it was a reliable and profitable investment opportunity. The platform looked well-designed, and Clara’s pitch was convincing. After some consideration, I decided to invest a substantial amount of my savings. Initially, everything seemed fine. Small withdrawals were processed without issue, which built my confidence in the platform.However, things took a turn when I tried to withdraw a larger sum of my profits. To my shock, I found myself locked out of my Coinbit Net account. I attempted to reset my password, but nothing worked. Clara stopped responding to my emails, and the platform’s customer support was unresponsive. It quickly became clear that I had been scammed. My $43,000 was gone, and I felt utterly helpless.Desperate to recover my funds, I began searching for solutions online. That’s when I found Adrian Lamo Hacker. Their website featured success stories from individuals who had been in situations similar to mine and had successfully recovered their funds. Although I was skeptical at first, I decided to reach out for help.From the very first interaction with Adrian Lamo Hacker, I knew I was in good hands. Their team was professional and empathetic, taking the time to understand my case. They explained the process of recovering my funds in detail and reassured me that they had the experience and resources to handle such scams. This gave me hope that I might get my money back. Adrian Lamo Hacker worked tirelessly on my case, using their expertise to track down the fraudster and recover my funds. After weeks of consistent effort, they successfully retrieved the full $43,000 I had lost. I was beyond relieved and incredibly grateful for their dedication. Thanks to Adrian Lamo Hacker, I was able to recover my money and move forward. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, I highly recommend reaching out to them via email: Adrianlamo@consultant.com/ WhatsApp: +1 (909) 739‑0269/ Telegram: @ADRIANLAMOHACKERTECH. Their persistence and expertise were the key to my successful recovery.
Go to comments